Juan Cole - June 13, 2005 (updated)

Top Ten Things You Wouldn't expect to Happen if You Listened to Bush and Cheney

10. You wouldn't expect Muslim detainees at Guantanamo Prison to have been put in "stress positions," or physically poked and shoved, or subjected to "The Invasion of Space by the Female," or to have had their heartbeat driven down to 35 beats a minute by the constant harassment, or to have them ask for crayons to write a will because they had decided to commit suicide. Some of the log of an interrogator has been published by Time magazine.

The Downing Street Memos and the Revenge of the Bloggers

When Michael Smith of the London Times wrote about a further leaked British cabinet document on decision-making about the Iraq war in July 2003, he did not simply report the revelations in the document.

Most commentators on the Smith story have missed his open acknowledgment of the role of the blogging world in turning the Downing Street Memo and other leaked British documents from a provincial Whitehall story into a world (and American) phenomenon.

Barzani President of Iraqi Kurdistan

UPI transmits from al-Hayat a report that the Kurds are upset with Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari's high-handed decision-making style. They say they will leave their coalition in parliament with the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance if Jaafari does not start consulting them more.